Former Post Oak Little League pitcher Appel is the Astros pick

Published 3:00 am, Friday, June 14, 2013

Now the question is: will he pay the team’s second number one draft choice in two years millions of dollars?

Former Post Oak Little League star and Spring Branch-area resident Mark Appel became the Astros first choice and the top pick overall Thursday night in the Major League Baseball amateur draft when Houston used its number one selection on the Stanford standout pitcher.

Appel, who was born in Houston and pitched for Post Oak until he was 12 when the family moved to California, was taken last year with the eighth pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates but the Buccos couldn’t sign him and he chose to go back to school and re-enter this year’s draft.

That gave the Astros, who passed on Appel last year, another shot at the 6-foot-5 right-hander and this time they didn’t pass on him.

Now the question again is: will they sign the young man who was the 2012 Collegiate Pitcher of the Year and is one of the 10 choices for the award again this year.

As the team holding the top pick in the amateur draft, the Astros have a maximum $7.79 million bonus pool slot to sign him. But like last year when the Astros were able to sign first-round choice Carlos Carrea for $4.8 million and then use the remaining money to help pay later picks, the team has indicated they may not want to spend the entire amount on Appel, which could be problematic since Appel’s agent Scott Boras is famous for always getting his clients the most money he can.

The scouting report on Appel, 21, seems to indicate he is the closest thing to a can’t-miss prospect that baseball has seen in some time.

In fact, Major League baseball analyst Harold Reynolds said he believes that Appel will be in the Astros’ rotation as early as next month.

While that probably won’t happen, Appel’s stats and career to this point have been most impressive.

The 6-2, 215-pound standout had a 10-4 record this year with a 2.12 Earned Run Average. He had 130 strikeouts and only 23 walks in 106 winnings of work.

Scouting reports online say that Appel can throw three different pitches for strikes and his hard slider and change-up offset a fastball that has been consistently clocked at 94 to 97 miles per hour.

He is also a workhorse who goes deep into games and gave the Cardinal a chance to win every time he took the mound.

Appel also indicated after the selection that he was excited about coming back to Houston and said he still has a lot of family here so there will be plenty of relatives following his every move.

The Post Oak Little League website, www.postoakll.com, also has a note on their homepage about Appel being one of their alumni and a link to the Major League Baseball website page where you can read all about Appel being chosen last year.